Sunshine! Bright sunshine and
clear sky! I’ve forgotten what it looks like. Wow! It’s nice.
We are in a camp spot in a
grassy meadow. It rained all day yesterday so the meadow is an inch or two deep
in water here and there. There are no trees in our space and only a few trees
nearby. The few trees are just enough to block our portable satellite
reception.
But there is sunshine!
I don’t think we have had
clear skies in a month or more. Think of
very wet “June gloom”.
The wetness has not stopped
us from having fun and seeing some of the sights.
We spent three days at
Watkins Glen State Park in Watkins Glen, New York. Our friends, the Suttons,
told us this was a must see and it is. A stream has carved a gorge here that the
stream now falls through on its way to Seneca Lake. It falls 13 times or so in
a mile and a half and descends about 600 feet. It is an absolutely fantastic
walk up the gorge.
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Here we are in Watkins Glen. |
The walk requires climbing
3,217,213 steps more or less. I may have exaggerated that a bit. That is what
my knees and feet tell me the count was, and I believe them.
From there we took an
afternoon to see the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, about 25
miles from Watkins Glen. We thought we would spend a few hours there. We
arrived at about 1 PM and left at after 6 PM. We didn’t begin to see it all.
Who would think there would be that much to see about glass?
We drove from Watkins Glen to
the Niagara Falls area on Thursday in pouring rain. Part of the trip was on
freeways. On the freeway we were in a constant
fog of dirt and water thrown into the air by trucks and autos as the screamed
pass us. I got used to not being able to see the roadway or where we were
going.
Since the trip was only three
hours and the rain stopped when we got to our campground we went to see the
falls.
I drove to Niagara Falls in
1967 with my mother. I was returning to California from living in Pennsylvania
and mom came out to keep me company. I remember driving up to a parking lot and
walking over to the falls at which point mom said, “Let’s get going, I’m cold.” When Brenda and I got to the falls I was
shocked at how they really look. I think some things have changes but they are
really far more spectacular than my memory of them is.
Of course, now you park a half-mile
away. Instead of a few spectators the tour busses are constantly dropping off
and picking up folks from all over the world. There are elevators down to the
base so you can look up at the falls. There is a platform built out over the
river so you can look down at the falls. There are gift shops, imax movies
(almost like being there), boat rides, space needles, and I don’t know what
else. It is shocking how things change
in only 46 years.
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A couple of shots of the American Fall. Horseshoe fall is in the background of the lower picture. |
Today (Friday) we went back
to see horseshoe falls better. We crossed into Canada.
I thought the US side was touristy
until I saw the Canada side. No doubt about it, the Canadians do ‘touristy’ up
right. They even have a Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville place overlooking the
falls.
Tomorrow we take the RV into
Canada where gasoline looks to be about $5.00 per US gallon.
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